1. Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with electronic parking devices (EPD) and in particular with an electronic parking meter that accepts a multitude of forms of electronic payment.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are some problems associated with utilization of unattended coin vending machines, including mechanical parking meters. For example, motorists have to make sure they have the right change before buying parking time, or, the person collecting money from the meter must walk to each meter and manually empty the coin canisters. It is also known that coin accepting parking meters are more vulnerable to vandalism.
In the past, unattended vending or dispensing machines were generally limited to relatively inexpensive items. The expansion of the vending machines to more sophisticated and higher priced articles, exceeds the average consumer's pocket or purse change. A limited solution has been provided by the introduction of a bill changer in the proximity of the coin operated vending machines. Still, there are problems that affect both the potential user and the owner of a vending machine, as for example the cost of the bill changer located in the proximity of a vending machine, potential loss by use of counterfeit currency, security concerns associated with unattended vending machines, as well as to the bill changer itself.
Consumers are becoming more comfortable making unattended purchases with non-currency devices like a card of some type, having a personal identification number (PIN) which allows for a faster paced lifestyle with the potential of 24-hour access. Such access is becoming common for unattended bank teller machines, public transportation systems including parking meters, and in many other cases.
Electronic parking meters accepting credit cards avoid the above mentioned inconveniences because the accumulated parking time and sale records can be stored in an electronic memory. Transaction systems, including parking meters, using vend disposable or reprogrammable pre-paid cards, are presently widely used. The user may choose the amount of time purchased on the meter when using his debit card. An auditor is used to program the parking meter and/or to extract data from the parking meter using a hand-held device directly or indirectly connected to the parking meter.
However, magnetic stripe cards are insecure and are easy to fake by simply swiping the magnetic tracks with a reader and duplicating the data read onto a virgin card with the same user name. Also, banks and financial institutions are reluctant to allow "offline" purchases even for small value transactions, which could in fact be fraudulent. Therefore, most magnetic strip readers are on-line or attended, each transaction being verified/authenticated by a back end or remote computer system/database.
Integrated circuit cards (ICCs) or smart cards, while yet not as widely used/accepted, have significant advantages over magnetic stripe cards. Smart cards can hold significantly more data about cardholder than is traditionally held on a magnetic strip. Smart cards typically employ internal memory and a CPU or processor on the chip, allowing for dedicated application to reside on the card. Sophisticated security algorithms and cryptography programs can be employed on the cards, protecting sensitive data from theft/attack. Security can be increased even further if the security algorithm or the cryptographic keys are held on a second ICC held inside the interface device (IFD) where the users insert their cards.
As these types of transactions become more popular, card readers adapted to collect data recorded on smart card terminals were also developed in parallel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,517 issued in 1996 to Cagliostro, discloses a hand held device for collecting data recorded on a smart card terminal and transferring same to a remote computer. The value of purchase is subtracted from the balance on the card, or is charged to the card owner's account.
Banks and financial institutions have now accepted the level of security offered by these card access systems. At the present time, there are some bank endorsed electronic payment (e-purse) schemes known, whereby the monetary value loaded on consumers cards can be spent or accepted by point of sale terminals as well as off-line, unattended vending machines, or other interface devices, including parking meters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,097 issued in 1989 to Speas, discloses a park card having a memory to be used with an electronic parking meter. The parking meter also accepts coins and paper bills. A hand-held auditor can be used with the parking meter through a cable or an infrared transmission system for gathering data from the parking meter. However, the parking meter does not include a card security access module and is not designed for low power consumption.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,892 issued in 1997 to Ward II et al., discloses an auditing system capable of processing and storing data derived from a vending machine, or a parking meter. A purchaser can buy parking time using a debit card or coins.
There are problems associated with mechanical meters, as well as electronic meters that do not support internal security modules. Non-electronic-purse parking meters can typically accept simple, logic or memory cards which offer lower security. Users have cash tied up in a dedicated card that can only be spent on parking. In addition, most current parking meters have a limited number of messages and displayed instructions, which are not easily visible.
Accordingly, there is a need for a robust, low-power, unattended, cash-less, multiple electronic purse parking meter, capable of accepting a plurality of debit/credit/smart cards, capable of authenticating payment, and capable of interacting with the user through a user friendly graphical interface.